Parents in West Sacramento said they are shocked by a homework assignment that some said is overtly racist.

The 20-exercise worksheet contains what could be considered derogatory statements about Native Americans. It was sent home with third-graders this week at Stonegate Elementary School.

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Students were asked to put a period next to the statements that are sentences, and a question mark next to the ones that are questions. Some of the statements drawing ire are, "Indians belong to the red race," "Their skin is of a copper color" and "The red men's name for corn was maize."

"They're very offensive," said parent Dawn Pedersen, whose son is in the second grade. "I would never refer to a human being as the 'red man' or 'red people.' That's just unthinkable."

School superintendent Linda Luna said reading the assignment was like getting a kick in the gut. She first learned about it late Friday in a text from a parent.

"As an Asian woman, if someone said I had yellow skin, or that I was a yellow person, it is that same level of emotion," Luna said.

Her next thought was to apologize right away to the kids and parents.

"My very first words would be, 'I'm very sorry that your children received an assignment that does not show value to people,'" Luna said.

Luna also pointed out that the district invested millions of dollars in a newly designed curriculum, so there would be no reason to deviate from it.

"It is not part of our curriculum," Luna said. "We do not condone this kind of assignment and we do not want this existing in our school district."

KCRA spoke with Stonegate Elementary School Principal Ben Kingsbury late Friday evening. He said he spoke with the teacher and she was very sorry. He said she plans on sending a letter of apology to parents first thing next week.